Meso‐scale statistical properties of gas–solid flow—a direct numerical simulation (DNS) study

Abstract

Statistical properties of particles in heterogeneous gas–solid flow were numerically investigated based on the results of a three‐dimensional large‐scale direct numerical simulation (DNS). Strong scale‐dependence and local non‐equilibrium of these properties, especially the particle fluctuating velocity (PFV) or granular temperature, were observed to be related to the effect of meso‐scale structures formed by the compromise in competition between fluid and particle dominated mechanisms. To quantify such effects, the heterogeneous structures were partitioned into a gas‐rich dilute phase and a solid‐rich dense phase according to the particle‐scale voidage defined through the Voronoi tessellation. Non‐equilibrium features, such as the deviation of PFV from Gaussian distribution and anisotropy, were found even in phase‐specific properties. A new distribution function for the PFV well characterizing these features was obtained by fitting the DNS results, which takes a typical bi‐disperse mode, with phase‐specific granular temperatures. The implications of these findings to the kinetic theory of granular flow and traditional continuum models of gas–solid flow were also discussed. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 3–14, 2017